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You're listening to the I Am An Artist podcast from Inspire Culture, Learning and Libraries. This podcast is hosted by Annie Warren. During the series, Annie talks to artists from the project and also members of the Inspire team in a bid to share valuable insights and learning gained from the project. Hello and welcome to episode five of the I Am An Artist podcast. I'm your host, Annie Warren, and today I'll be talking to members of Inspire's Libraries and Culture team who worked on the project.

With us, have Libraries and Culture Manager Helen Ackroyd and Luciana Gallici, the National Portfolio Organisation Librarian. Hello and welcome. Hello. Thank you both so much for being here today. The first thing I'd like to ask you about is how did the project initially come about and what did it set out to achieve? Well, it was developed from a previous Arts Council project that one of our colleagues, Michelle Dunstan, ran called I Am A Reader, which asked the question,

reading a creative act. And a lot of the readers didn't think they were being creative as they read. So the results came out of that project showed that whilst people read, they are creating pictures in their own minds and visualizing that story, they become the co-creators of that story and that book. So we wanted to give more opportunities to people to be creative, who don't usually see themselves as that and to empower audiences as well.

So we wanted to create a new project that was accessible, high quality art opportunities, working alongside artists and writers. And that's where I Am A Creator began, which was the overarching project in this round of MPO funding. So Inspire has been Arts Council national portfolio organization since 2018. But this current round was brilliant for us because we got some additional

funding and it meant we could add in adults to our programmes with Arts Council. For the first MPO round it was children and families only and this I'm a creator strand that stretches right through the four years of this round with I'm a writer, I'm an artist and two more still to come allowed us to work with older adults, those with memory loss and dementia as well as neurodiverse families and in our first round of funding

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none of those audiences were included. Great. So it was kind of, was it, it was an expansion of previous projects and like a new branch of a project that's already existed. Yeah, a new branch, something that would be consistently in all four years of the project funding, but that would change in every year of that funding. But there'd be some like cornerstones within the project that would happen every time. with every branch of this,

I am a creator program. CPD, continuous professional development, is included for the artists that we recruit to help them develop their practice because we very much see the creative people as artists and we want them to remain artists but to learn how to adapt and develop their practice to reach very specific targeted groups. So the CPD element

is in every year. Obviously the targeted groups are the same for the four years, not necessarily the same groups, but the same audiences. And every year, some sort of exhibition and some sort of product, but not necessarily the same product. These are things we're sort of deciding as we go along. So a project that obviously, as you said, has things in common, fits within a certain framework, has a different focus every time. I think a different art form is what we were trying to Yeah, a different art form.

So can you tell us a bit about the artist recruitment process for the programme? Over the last few years we've been working on putting out application processes which are as accessible as possible. So I think that this project, it was different because we were looking for a group of artists first of all because we wanted to work with five, following on again from Ryta. And we were sort of looking for artists that would work together really well.

It was about their practice as much as the work with the groups from a range of backgrounds with a range of experiences. Some could be emerging, some could be established and also worked in a range of art forms as well. And that they would be open to working co-creatively, which was a big part of this project, flexibly and can learn from each other. And were open to taking part in that CPD opportunity, which was for arts, for dementia and access to inclusive.

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So yeah, we ended up with five lovely varied artists. was Dan, who does abstract art, Lawrence, who's more graphic illustrator, Rachel Hayes, who does 2D collages and abstract paperwork, and then Rachel Scanlon, who has a theatre background, so she does quite large scale 3D artwork and plays with scale. And then Deborah Frith, who really specialises in

large-scale sculpture and ceramics. So it was a real nice mixture. That's really nice. So kind of obviously recruiting artists sort of looking at their individual backgrounds and individual practices, but also looking at how they're going to work together as a group cohesively. So recruiting as a group almost as well. Because it sounds like they're all really varied. Each person brings something a bit different to the group. That's right. that's lovely.

So Lucy, I'm really interested in what you said about the accessible brief and I'm wondering if Helen, you could tell us a little bit more about what that involved or expand on that a little bit more. The accessible brief is it's been a really interesting learning curve for Inspire over a couple of years. We actually worked with Daryl Beaton as a critical friend to develop artist briefs and call outs. You know, we're lucky enough to secure

funding to do these brilliant projects and we want to find and recruit new artists. Often our projects are for working with targeted groups that have access needs themselves and we were aware that our brief wasn't particularly accessible in the way it was written and the way we put it out. So, Daryl, who also led the access and inclusion training for the artists in this project,

helped us to look at the way we phrase the questions, the way we structure the language in the brief, and then helped us to think about the different formats that we put it out in. So that's been quite a change in our processes. BSL, audio, transcript, plain text, large format. lot of work has been done on the website to make sure that works with different access tools and then sharing it through different networks locally.

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Lots of who also have external funding and are looking at targeted work. So it's like a collective learning about accessible briefs. And then interestingly, with this cohort of artists that got recruited, these are all people that we've never worked with before. So it's really good when you find new people and you see new applications coming through, because, you know, can be, the easy thing is to stick with the people you know and you trust. And I think it's really positive that we got five new people for this.

Great, so talk to us a little bit about the audience for the project, so specifically targeting communities who might be easy to exclude from the arts. Was there a specific way that you went about that and did you find it easy or difficult? So as Inspire, we're in our second round of MPO funding, which included some uplift money specifically for levelling up for culture areas. These were districts that around the UK, which were identified as less engaged with the arts. So in Notts, we've got Bassetlaw, Ashfield, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood.

So we knew we wanted to stick with those targeted areas. And as Helen mentioned before, we worked with similar groups or the same groups as I am a writer following on from them. We also knew we wanted to stick with the same type of audience. So they were older people, older adults living with and affected by dementia, specialist schools, neurodivergent families, and people that are easily excluded from the arts.

And of course, the groups that we worked with again to build on those and continue those relationships from I'm a Writer were adult groups. So they were Beaubridge Court Care Home, Blythworth Memory Group and the Oasis Community Centre, which was slightly different from Men at the Edge. were under the same umbrella, but we worked with a mixed adult art group at the Oasis Centre.

The differences for us for artists is that we started to include the specialist schools, which were Red Gate and Bracken Hill Primary. And then we were having some conversations from the start with the people involved from previous year. And if not, we found the right person to talk to and hopefully got them enthusiastic about the project. They were genuinely keen to take part and have this fantastic opportunity to have a professional artist in for a number of weeks.

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to work with a group. then little practicalities of site visits beforehand were really helpful. So these particular groups, some quite sensitive groups, seeing that space before, visiting and meeting the people that were there, getting to know them, and then obviously seeing the practicalities of the space that we had to work in, if they've got a sink, for example, or chairs and tables. That was the thing we did to prepare.

for what was about to happen. Is that something that you did as Inspire sort of pre the artist going in? So you had a good idea of the space and the people and things like that? we actually did a pre-visit before they did a pre-visit. They had a little intro first for their first session before they started delivering. But we as Inspire went in before the artist even went. That's really helpful. Also, I imagine to start building those relationships with people as well.

Getting people excited and comfortable. not being scared about doing small classes in their spaces. Yeah, because it can be quite daunting I imagine. Absolutely, although it is called I'm an artist, we all know that people think they are not artists and find it hard to, yeah, sort of let go, especially with the adult groups, know, letting go and taking part. The difference for this project as well was that we actually went out to those sites rather than...

a lot of our funding is getting people into libraries. So this first half of I'm an artist was going out to those targeted groups and doing the outreach work in their venues, which is like an added element of risk. Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. So I think I think we definitely had a slightly easier job than the I'm a writer because that was the first branch of this I'm a creator four year project. They'd done some of the heavy lifting of

making the relationships with some of the groups that we carried on with. But also because the I'm a writer project had been so positive for the groups, when you then pick up the phone and say, would you like to do I'm an artist? It was a much easier yes, because there's some trust built already. There's some understanding that Inspire is going to be sensitive. They're going to send in a good person to work with you.

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that you'll be listened to if there's a problem. So I think that really helped us for the adult groups that we followed on. And we've been lucky enough to run projects for a number of years with different groups with a variety of funding. And both Bracken Hill and Red Gate have done some big draw projects with us in the past. So it just opens that door a little bit, allows the conversation to start and builds that trust, you know, that we are going to do a good job.

And I think working, as Lucy said, like going out and working in their environment is, know, often we ask people to come to us, work in our venues. And that was quite a learning curve for the artists. I think one or two of them have probably said it in their interviews, that had that pre-visit of seeing the space, seeing the carpet.

Seeing the audience, seeing the, you know, the big rooms, you know, something entirely different going off in the other corner. But those pre-visits were valuable to like put everyone's mind at rest. The groups had met the artists, the artists had seen the space. And so day one wasn't so nervous for both sides. Yeah, there was like a certain amount of preparation that went into it. So people sort of knew a bit.

more what was going on. And it sounds like as well what we talking about before, the fact that this was part of an overarching project means that people knew a little bit more. Some of the people, the groups that you already have relationships with knew what to expect and they'd done something similar before. So they were a bit more comfortable going into it as well, which is really helpful when it can be, as we're talking about, bit of daunting thing if you don't think of yourself as an artist to join in with something like this.

On that note, what has the reception of the project been like? Both from the artists who you recruited and from the participants? I think it's been good. varied. But mostly good. The artists were, I'll sort of start with the artists, they definitely enjoyed and were thankful for the training opportunity because there's not a lot, I don't think there's a lot of projects that would have that included. well, particularly for us anyway, we don't often get that chance to.

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to do some training for artists mid-career, which is quite rare. So they were really grateful of that. And we were lucky enough to take part as well. So that was good for us to learn at the same time as the artists. And then they were excited to start, but obviously, mention co-creation slightly. This whole project was about co-creation and working with those groups together. It was like entering the unknown for both artists and...

us as the organization. There's definitely a sense to mixed reaction about that. I know some artists really liked to know what the outcome needs to be. They want to do a good job for us and they want to do well. And for us, it was quite alien because we have, we can usually work with them and say, well, you we can, we've got an idea of what the outcome might be. But was very, there was no specific outcome. It was, was about the process. It was about having that experience with those.

and those groups working with those professional artists. And it was really about the experience on the day during that session. I think the audience, the schools were really keen, really keen. They just said, yes, straight away, we had no trouble at all. were just, yeah, very excited to start. I think, I don't know if it was the nature of the school as well, they were used to working quite flexibly, so they were brilliant. They just fitted us in and...

gave us a group to work with adults. The adult groups were a little bit more apprehensive. Like I said, I think you get to a point where you just go, I can't do art anymore. And also we had to be aware that we were not intruding, but it kind of felt like bit of an intrusion on their time and their space and their session that they go to anyway. So we were just there. Yes, it was definitely mixed. It was definitely mixed. I think eventually that was a nice thing.

that was sort of revealed at the end of the sessions because it had span over a few weeks, seeing that group fully engage and interact with the artists and enjoy taking part. was that sort of development and that building of that relationship and trust over that time, which is good to see. Yeah, that's really interesting, the pros and cons of going into someone else's space, because I can imagine that having someone come to you in lots of ways, that makes things

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a lot more accessible and a lot more friendly and a lot less daunting. But then on the other hand as well, there is, as you mentioned, not wanting to feel like you're intruding or taking over someone else's space or time. So I can imagine that's quite a double edged sword in many ways. And I also think it's really interesting what you said about co-creation and the outcome, because I know that several of the artists have mentioned this idea of wanting to show the participants that they can't be wrong or that they like encouraging them to just have a go.

And that's really interesting because it sounds like the artists themselves have also learnt that in a way, like this idea of not having a specific outcome to work with and kind of just going with it as well. So it sounds like, yeah, that co-creation aspect is really interesting for participants and artists alike. That's what it sounds like to me. What do think, Ellen, do agree? Yeah, I do agree. I think it's been really interesting. was listening to Lucy there thinking there's quite a wide range of audiences for this project.

You were talking earlier about the audiences being the groups and the participants. But as this project evolves, there's been other audiences too. So there's been exhibitions for I Am a Writer about the writers. There's been an exhibition for I Am an Artist showing the work that's been produced. these have toured library galleries and we get a lot of footfall in libraries. So all sorts of people are.

coming across the project, even if they're not directly involved. And some of the comments that have been left in the comments box of those exhibitions have been really lovely what people notice about the work. And as we speak now, more public facing elements are being made. So there's going to be a publication from what the writers did that will be made into like a magazine and become a third exhibition. And there'll be a similar publication, much more visual.

about the I'm an artist that will be shared as a piece of print in libraries where you naturally find magazines and books obviously. But these elements are then also going to be shared onto our sector. So one of the nice things about working with Arts Council funding is that reporting back also helps others. So all the libraries that are looking at working in these ways or

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looking to learn about how that building that CPD helps develop the artists in your area. there's a public audience still being fed with new things, but there's also fellow professionals, whether that's in libraries or other arts organisations, that are still to get this project in a different form that will help inform their planning for their own project.

Yeah, definitely. Was that an outcome that evolved over the course of the project or was that something you had in mind right from the beginning? We had in mind, we'd done four years of early years work in our first round of MPO and developed a whole sort of sector webpage with different reports, case studies, how we'd done it and a product out of that work. So we knew we wanted to...

make sure that we did share the learning back to the sector, but we didn't know in what format that would be. And we certainly didn't set off thinking we'd be sat here doing a podcast. We all are. Yes, you are shocked. And delight. Were there any other ways in which the project evolved over the course of its duration? I think just like the nature of co-creation, it sort of evolved all the time, particularly for the artists that in their planning.

I think the training really helped with that. It emphasised the sort of here and now and the actual moment with that group is more important than what came out of it. So each week or each month, however often they were visiting, that could be different. they had to be very adaptable and react to the group on that day, which actually could be different people. We didn't always have the same people each time. They were reassessing and evolving.

as the months went on? I'm speaking personally. It's really difficult to not know what the outcome is going to be or at least some sense of it and leaving it open until you've got through that session and then having those conversations. And I think it's been very interactive because of that evolution of the Crow production. So sometimes you can commission an artist to do a project over a period of time.

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and you just know they're delivering and working towards the thing we've all agreed. So I think because of the co-production element, there's always been that touching base between sessions. How has it gone? What's happened? What are people asking for? How have they felt this week? And you can see, you know, we could see it shifting. And that's unusual. Yeah.

That was okay, wasn't it? was kind of a change. For me, was quite difficult. I think were a split of 50-50. was half of going, oh my God, the other half was going, yeah, let's go with the flow. It's fine. That's so interesting because it's like the very nature of the project requires you to have lots of check-ins, but also requires it to change almost because there is no set outcome. So of course it's going to evolve over the course.

which is what I going to mention about the challenges of the project. As we're on the subject of the co-creation, because for us, we've delivered quite a lot of arts projects, which always has timeline, budget and exhibition. for me, leading on a project, project management tools, we kind of work backwards from an end goal and an end thing that we can visualize. And the practicalities of...

involved around that and what could be in the exhibition or how we're going to hang the exhibition. But it was literally on the day when we found out what we were hanging in that exhibition, which looked amazing. But that was that for me personally was was definitely a challenge. And I could say some of the artists, I think, found it quite maybe refreshing in the end to not stick to a, you know, full plan. It wrecking at the time and then rewarding at the end. Yeah.

Something that's definitely come through for me from talking to the other artists on this program and on I Am A Writer is that the aspect of co-creation has been one of the most challenging but also ultimately rewarding aspects of the project because ultimately that is something that does allow you to be really, really creative and allows you to go down random avenues or allows you to evolve the project as you go based on participants, individual.

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wants or access needs or anything like that and then you do have these maybe not what you thought of at the beginning but like a really beautiful artwork that you wouldn't have had the opportunity to create otherwise. Yeah I think it was development for their practices as well because they had that freedom there was sort of you know the loose skeleton underneath but then they there was a lot of creative freedom within this project I think it was just that reassurance from us as the organisation to say that you know that's okay.

that's okay. It's okay. doing it. We're going with you with the co-creation. I can imagine as well. I'm sort of speculating a bit here, but I can imagine that's also helpful to participants as well, because as we talking about people who have been historically easy to exclude from the arts, there is that barrier of like, you have to do it a certain way, or you have to have a certain skill and sort of removing those barriers and saying like, you can't be wrong, or you can have a go at that. I would imagine is also quite helpful.

in terms of helping people to feel included and not excluded from the arts as we're talking about. So it sounds like that was really important. So other than potentially the artworks that you weren't expecting, was there anything else that surprised you about the project? Well, I think for me, it was when we started to record the podcasts. I thought the podcasts were going to be...

really interesting, but interesting to the sector, interesting to other artists, interesting to people who want to work in this way. But I was often moved to tears listening to how the artists felt about certain moments, like landmark moments that had happened. Quite small things sometimes, but in a way that they'd, you know, open themselves up to just see what happened and use the training to

work with the people in front of them in different ways. And I think it was when Dan said that the lady in his group was, who was nonverbal, who was unable to give him much feedback in what he was doing. And the canvas was passed to her and she added her yellow square. And I just thought, wow, that's amazing. And I didn't expect that things like that to happen. I think, you know,

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that just shows you what people have got from it, which is growing. Yeah. Yeah, I'd add to that. Some of the reactions from the groups and the people that were in those groups were so lovely. know, people that didn't want to join in, like I've mentioned before, didn't want to join in at the start. And again, in the Blood With Memory group, there was one champion in particular who didn't, it was, you know,

The body language was real. was like arms crossed, absolutely refusing. Didn't say very much, but just did not want to do it. And Dan, very quietly, very respectfully, just had another go, had another go. And then always at the end of the session, he would start to paint. Didn't make a fuss of it, but just start to paint. I was just like, oh my God, that's brilliant. In contrast to that, we try and measure each project, being an MPO.

We do collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Some of the stats around the public workshops, I think we reached about 250 public families and 25 % of those people had never been to an arts and culture event in a library before. And that always surprises me because I think we're in year seven now in an MPO and I will think, well, surely everybody's, you know, we're boring now.

But now we're still reaching new people and giving those high quality arts opportunities to new people and creating a new arts audience and that always surprises me. What did you both enjoy the most about the project overall? I think working differently. It's simultaneously the most challenging thing and the most enjoyable thing. Because you can get in a groove if this is how you did it.

So having to think differently and think, no, this isn't how we're doing this one. How are we going to do it? It's been really good. And thinking about the sharing of the learning and doing these podcasts. This is not something we've ever done before. So you can learn new things. We've learned new things as well in this project. I've enjoyed seeing how the artists have worked together.

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and have supported each other. We've had a group chat along the project and each time they've delivered a session, as soon as they started doing the training, they've been talking to each other about it and saying, yeah, I could do that or I could try that or how's it gone? And sharing photographs and really learning together and seeing, I've enjoyed seeing how their own, as I've mentioned before, how their practices have grown and developed over nearly a year. Lawrence.

has been asked back to go into the school. He hadn't done a lot of workshop delivery before, now the teacher, think he was probably one of the artists that wasn't sure how they were engaging or how they were reacting to the workshops. But then on the end session, the teacher came up and said, you've done an amazing job. Everybody's really engaged. We'd love to have you back. was just fantastic. That's really great. think.

A very similar thing happened on I'm a writer actually where it's not all that often that groups of the artists get to come together as a group and work collaboratively because sometimes that kind of art can be quite solitary. So it's really, I mean, it was also wonderful as writers to get to come together and bounce off each other and actually get to meet other people who do the same thing as you, which I can imagine is very valuable on this project as well. And of course, going clay back into libraries.

Bring Clay back. So finally, is there any advice that you'd give other organisations who might be interested in running large scale creative projects similar to this one? A lot of time, I think there was a lot of preamble, you know, talking to the artists, going through the training, then talking about that training, talking about the groups, talking with the groups.

It's quite a long lead in before anything actually gets delivered to make sure it's good when it happens. Obviously with the funding, running the CPD has been brilliant. But if you can build CPD into your project, the whole area benefits, you know, these are local artists, so they can go on and work with these sorts of targeted audience for other organizations because of the training that we've offered them.

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If all organizations built a bit of CPD into projects for all their creatives, then the whole area benefits. I think post-COVID, getting people together physically has been really valuable. I think some of the artists, particularly ones that have had less experience, you can literally see them learning from people in the room. And I think that's quite difficult if you're only ever meeting on teams. So I think having that...

those regular get togethers physically as a team has been really good for them. And then probably just don't be afraid to take a risk and see what happens because some magic has happened here, that's for sure. Yeah, I would say use it to try something new if possible, really take advantage of that opportunity. But prepare to be flexible, adaptable, open, patient and creative. And you can gather as much information

as you can beforehand or before you start delivering, but prepare to change the plan. That makes a lot of sense. So do a lot of preparation, leave a lot of time for the lead in, but also be prepared to change everything at the last minute. Because that's where the magic happens. That's really brilliant. Thank you so much. It's been really interesting to talk to you about this really, really gorgeous project. So thank you so much for making time.

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You've been listening to the I Am An Artist podcast from Inspire Culture Learning and Libraries. I Am An Artist is the second stage of our I Am A Creator programme, which is funded by investment from Arts Council England through our status as a national portfolio organisation. To find out more about the project, our artists, the audiences who took part and the outcomes, can visit our website at inspireculture.org.uk forward slash I Am An Artist.